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On inauguration day in Washington, Sen. Lamar Alexander will be spending a lot of time with President Barack Obama, reports Michael Collins.The Maryville Republican and a handful of other Congress members will begin inauguration day by sharing morning coffee with Obama and Vice President Joe Biden at the White House. Afterward, they’ll ride in the presidential motorcade to the U.S. Capitol, where the president and vice president will be sworn in for a second term and Obama will deliver his inaugural address.
Before Obama speaks, however, Alexander will take to the podium, look out on the National Mall and address the million or so spectators himself. His will be just a two-minute speech, but the whole world will be watching, so he wants to make sure he chooses exactly the right words for such a significant and historic event.
“It’s an important two minutes to me,” Alexander said. “This is a rare moment in American history, and I want to use the time well. This tradition we have of the peaceful transfer or reaffirmation of immense power is extraordinary.”
Alexander landed a speaking slot at the swearing-in ceremony Jan. 21 and an important supporting role in other inauguration activities because he is on the congressional committee that has been planning the events.
Alexander and other members of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies are in charge of the swearing-in, which will take place on the Capitol’s West Front, and a luncheon that will follow immediately afterward in the Capitol’s stately Statuary Hall. The inaugural parade, balls and other activities are handled by a separate group, the Presidential Inaugural Committee.
Many of the day’s events are dictated by tradition. The congressional inaugural committee’s job is to see that those traditions are carried out again this year and to avoid the problems that have marred previous inaugurals, like four years ago when thousands of ticket holders were left waiting in a tunnel to the National Mall and missed the ceremonies.
“We want to try to make sure we avoid those sorts of problems,” Alexander said.

Promising to turn the White House “into a greenhouse,” Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein brought a passionate message to a Nashville audience Thursday, reports Michael Cass. She urged listeners not to “waste” their votes on the major-party nominees.Stein, who was arrested on a trespassing charge Wednesday while protesting construction of the Keystone XL pipeline in Texas, said neither President Barack Obama nor Republican candidate Mitt Romney would do what’s necessary to halt climate change, repair the economy or solve other pressing national problems.
“Who are things getting better for? The CEOs, the 1 percent,” she said.
Stein, a physician who ran against Romney for the Massachusetts governor’s office in 2002, spoke to more than 50 people — including at least two other Green Party candidates — at a house party in Bellevue. She visited a Pleasant Hill church, Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro and Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville earlier in the day.
She arrived during the first election cycle when the Green Party has had a line on the ballot in Tennessee, and Green candidates are seeking congressional and state legislative seats as well as the presidency.
…While the Green Party and other third-party groups have no chance of matching Obama and Romney in Tuesday’s election, Stein said the party’s followers need to stand up for their beliefs at the polls and convert as many people as possible to give the party greater standing in future elections. She said Democrats and Republicans are “bought and paid for” by Wall Street firms, oil and gas companies, and other special interests.

Virginia Abernathy, an 80-year-old retired Vanderbilt professor, is the focus of a Tennessean story on her role as “an emerging leader of the white supremacist movement.”
Abernethy appears on the Tennessee ballot as running mate to Gatlinburg-area filmmaker Merlin Miller, who is running for president of the United States. They are listed as independent candidates on the Tennesee ballot, but represent the American Third Position Party, or A3P..The whites-only polit­i­cal party was formed “to rep­re­sent the inter­ests of White Amer­i­cans,” according to its website. It has run a handful of candidates for offices as varied as the Mesa, Ariz., City Council and the New Hampshire governor’s office. Republicans in New Hampshire called A3P the party of “despicable racists.”
Abernethy calls all the attention misguided but amusing.
“I think it’s hilarious,” said Abernethy, speaking from the corner office on the Vanderbilt campus that is hers for life as a professor emerita of anthropology and psychiatry. “I’m 104 pounds exactly. I’m punching above my weight, to hear the SPLC tell it.”
She politely would like to set the record straight.
She is not a white supremacist, Abernethy said.
She’s an environmentalist and a scientist. She opposes most immigration. She’s a feminist who helped put an end to Vanderbilt professors calling female medical students “girls.” She’s a Christian and a European-American.
She is also, she said, an “ethnic separatist.”
“Separatism says, ‘Birds of a feather flock together,'” Abernethy said. “I say, ‘Let them.’ What I see is rampant racial discrimination against European-Americans. And I am not in favor of discrimination.
“I see African-American groups and Asian-American groups and I feel that we should respect our identity as European-Americans as well.
“I do not see anything whatever wrong with that.”

From YouGov:
Republican challenger Mitt Romney gets a majority of the votes of likely voters over Democratic President Barack Obama in Tennessee, 52% Romney to 43% Obama, in a YouGov poll of 484 likely voters from the Volunteer state (recontacted from an initial September poll).
Tennessee’s likely voters are moderately partisan in their approach, with 86% of Democrats sticking with Obama, and 86% of Republicans voting for Romney.
Romney has a strong lead among likely voters who are Independents, 57% Romney-35% Obama.
Women in Tennessee slightly favor the challenger, 51% Romney-45% Obama, while men favor the challenger, 53%-41%.
Romney leads in Middle Tennessee (59%-37%), East Tennessee (56%-37%) and the Nashville area (56%-40%), while Obama leads in the Memphis area and West Tennessee (62%-34%)
The oldest likely voters in Tennessee age 65+ favor Romney over Obama (59% Romney-36% Obama), and Romney also leads among Tennessee’s Baby Boomers, but by a narrower 53%-42% margin. Obama leads among likely voters age 30-44, 55% Obama-38% Romney.
Romney maintains a solid, albeit narrowing lead among Tennessee likely voters who are Independents, where Romney was leading 56%-28% in September with this key swing group, and Romney leads, 57%-35% among these same Independent likely voters today.
…Incumbent Republican Senator Bob Corker holds a 48%-27% lead over Democratic Senate challenger Mark Clayton.
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The full report HERE.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Knoxville News Sentinel has ended a decades-old tradition of endorsing presidential candidates, saying it no longer has any special access to the candidates.
Editor Jack McElroy said in a column (http://bit.ly/WpA2Ec) published Sunday it was a difficult decision.
“Citizens can find plenty of opinions about the presidential candidates to weigh against their own, and there is no shortage of community dialogue — far from it,” McElroy wrote. “The News Sentinel also has no special access to the candidates, and, in this age of global Internet and 24-hour news, we have no sources of information that every other citizen does not have as well.”
The tradition of endorsing a presidential candidate dates to the paper’s beginnings in the 1920s.
Until 2008, the newspaper’s presidential endorsement was decided by its parent company, E.W. Scripps Co. Most went to Republicans, including in 2000 when the paper backed George W. Bush over Tennessean Al Gore. In 2008, the newpaper’s editorial board endorsed John McCain.
McElroy said the editorial board sees strong reasons for endorsing candidates in local races, including sparking community dialogue and using a newspaper’s special access to candidates to help inform voters. That rationale no longer applies to the presidential contest, he said.
The paper will continue to endorse candidates in local races

Michael Cass has visited Houston County, one of just four rural counties carried by President Obama four years ago, and reports things could be different this year. Obama carried Houston by 70 votes in 2008.And with unemployment at 9.8 percent in August, it’s possible the Democratic winning streak will end when voters choose between Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, on Nov. 6.
“Not too many people are satisfied,” said Albert Bell, 73, a retired General Motors engineer who owns a flower shop in Erin, a shamrock-happy town that makes the most of its Irish name. “They don’t like the way things are. The change Mr. Obama promised never happened.”
Even so, Bell, an Obama supporter in 2008, said he was undecided as of late September.
Residents of the predominantly white county said the unrepentant yellow-dog streak in many voters has a number of deep roots. A significant farming community and a big Tennessee Valley Authority power plant in neighboring Stewart County have made the federal government an important, often friendly presence.
“People don’t have a fear of government,” said Charles Uffelman, a University of Memphis freshman from Erin who was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention last month. “The county wouldn’t survive if not for a lot of the government programs we have.”

Breaking from two decades of tradition, this year’s election exit poll is set to include surveys of voters in 31 states, not all 50 as it has for the past five presidential elections, according to The Fix, a Washington Post blog.Dan Merkle, director of elections for ABC News, and a member of the consortium that runs the exit poll, confirmed the shift Thursday. The aim, he said, “is to still deliver a quality product in the most important states,” in the face of mounting survey costs.
The decision by the National Election Pool — a joint venture of the major television networks and The Associated Press — is sure to cause some pain to election watchers across the country
Voters in the excluded states will still be interviewed as part of a national exit poll, but state-level estimates of the partisan, age or racial makeups of electorates won’t be available as they have been since 1992. The lack of data may hamper election night analyses in some states, and it will almost certainly limit post-election research for years to come.
…Here is a list of the states that will be excluded from coverage: Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.

The Mitt Romney- Paul Ryan team wants to win a GOP victory “by acclamation” in the Nov. 6 election, vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan said today at a fundraiser at the Knoxville Marriott, reports the News Sentinel.Ryan told a crowd of 310 people that since President Obama can’t run on hope and change, he’s going to do it by dividing the nation and winning by default.
At the event, Gov. Bill Haslam announced that about $1 million was raised at the fundraiser. This included persons who donated at either the $1,000 or $10,000 level.
Those donating $10,000 were able to have their photographs with Ryan.
Ryan’s theme throughout the 15-minute speech was that voters have a choice between personal liberties and smaller government offered by the Romney-Ryan team — or bigger government and fewer liberties offered by the Democrats.
He said the Romney-Ryan ticket stresses the American system of freedom and free enterprise, while President Obama practices a different government and sees its role as establishing new government-defined rights.
Earlier today, with a wave to reporters and a nod toward a banner touting the University of Tennessee, Ryan had stepped off his campaign plane at McGhee Tyson Airport and headed for the fundraiser at the Marriott.

With more than two months to go before election day, Tennesseans are position to break records for the amount donated to the presidential campaign and congressional campaigns, reports The Tennessean.Already, $29.15 million has flowed from individuals in Tennessee to 2012 presidential and congressional campaigns nationwide, as well as to political parties, political action committees and outside groups such as “Super PACs,” according to the center’s breakdown of Federal Election Commission records.
If the state’s politically active continue to open their checkbooks over the stretch run, they could top the $36.78 million in individual contributions Tennessee pumped into the federal-level campaigns of 2008, the most for the state this century.
The Center for Responsive Politics recently estimated that 2012 congressional and presidential races will cost at least $5.8 billion, setting another new record.
…Nashville continues to dominate political giving in the state, with individuals there giving $11.97 million. The Chattanooga area is a distant second at $3.9 million.
The most generous ZIP codes have been 37205 ($2.48 million) and 37215 ($2.12 million), both in Nashville, followed by 37027 ($1.47 million) in Brentwood.